


Get away from my hedges!

by Silverine



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Except he is not in space lol, Lance is their neighbor, M/M, Pining Lance (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron)-centric, Shiro is Keith's father, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), When you try to be Cool Dad(tm) and fail miserably, and he is very concerned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-22 18:11:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13769709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverine/pseuds/Silverine
Summary: Takashi Shirogane and his beloved son Keith enjoy a quiet life in the suburbs, until the McClain family appears and their youngest son, Lance, starts to behave... suspiciously. Of course, Mr. Shirogane would never allow him to get away with it... right?This fic is inspired bythis promptin the ao3feed-klance, on tumblr. And I suck at titles, sorry.





	Get away from my hedges!

Watering the hydrangeas was the last chore of the day for Mr. Takashi Shirogane, and he loved it. With a cigarette between his lips and the hose humming softly, he’d catch a bit of fresh air and enjoy the peace and quiet of his neighborhood, while thinking that it was actually worth it to take the damn loan to give his son this ‘suburbs life’.

It was only Keith and him. Years ago, they had moved into this nice two-story house, escaping from the dark apartments in the center of the city where his child had had to live while he was still in service. His son was now in his last year of high school and he was happy to give him enough peace to decide what to do with his life. Would he choose Uni? His son was so smart... Or would he rather follow his passion for karate? He could do it in college, although he was so good, he could afford to refuse even a sports scholarship if he wanted. As a father it wouldn’t be his preferred choice, but he’d be willing to accept it. He’d accept anything to make his boy happy.

The only thing he was not willing to accept, he thought as he tossed the butt into the ashtray by the door, was that pair of eyes that had been watching the garden for a while among the hedges, in a poor attempt to go unnoticed. Even without his military training he’d have noticed, but the dumb brat to whom those eyes belonged seemed convinced that his disguise was perfect. He squeezed the hose hard, considering whether to aim or not, when the door opened behind him and the voice of his son Keith was heard from inside.

“Just one garbage bag?”

“Yes. Thanks, son.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Keith appeared in the garden carrying a garbage bag and Takashi, pressing his lips tightly, followed the path of the eyes between the hedges, which at the sound of his child's voice had become bright and followed him intensely.

With a cough, Mr. Shirogane said:

“It's starting to chill, why don’t you just leave it there and go inside? I’ll do it.”

“You told me to take out the trash, dad. Make up your mind,” replied his son, wrinkling his nose while depositing the bag in the can outside.

Takashi was too distracted watching the hedge to answer, so his son finished the task and went into the house looking at his father, surprised by his silence, but with a shrug he just went back to his room.

As soon as Keith's footsteps stopped echoing in the stairs, Takashi adjusted the hose and launched a single stream directly at the intruder, until he heard an "aaaagh!" From the other side of the hedge emerged a tall, thin, completely drenched boy. He looked at his dripping clothes with horror, but upon perceiving Takashi's gaze, he straightened up in a poor military posture that, in other circumstances, would have made Mr. Shirogane laugh. Not this time.

“Lance McClain,” Takashi said, cutting the water and holding the hose as if it were a whip. He stopped himself from crackling his knuckles, remembering that the boy was barely seventeen years old.

“M-Mr. Shirogane,” stuttered Lance, shivering a bit inside his wet clothes.

“Are my hedges that interesting? They are the same as yours,” said Takashi, with a steel voice. The boy swallowed hard.

“No… not really.”

“Then care to explain why are you stalking my garden like a psycho?” This time he put a hand in this hip and inflated his huge chest, to look more intimidating. It always worked.

“Psy-psycho? Me? I’m just... appreciating the sights.” Even with water dripping from his hair, it was possible to notice his faint blush, but it wasn’t enough to stop his usual gall. Takashi frowned so much he feared his face would stay like that forever.

“Appreciating the sights? I’m under the impression that you’re appreciating something else. Or _someone_ else,” he said. Lance scratched his head, nervously.

“Well, it's just-- you look like a DC superhero, which is impressive, even though I’m more of a Marvel guy...”

“Not me! I mean Keith!” Takashi exclaimed, turning red (more angry than ashamed), waving the hose threateningly, at which Lance cringed. “You are watching my son! Again!”

 _Again, AGAIN,_ actually. Just before the school year began, the McClain family had moved into the house next door. They were a nice group of cheerful Cubans composed by a father, a mother, a grandmother and five children, although only two of them still lived with their parents. Of them, Lance was the youngest. The tall, dark skinned boy with lively blue eyes and an overwhelming personality seemed to be the perfect contrast to his pale, dark haired son, with dark sharp eyes and an unfriendly nature. When Takashi went to greet his nice new neighbors and learned that the boy was going to the same school as Keith, he saw it as a chance that, finally, his son could have a friend in the neighborhood that was more... _normal_. Nothing against Pidge and Hunk, who were good kids, but their tendency to blow things up from time to time in the name of science was a little alarming to him.

But oh, he was so wrong. His intuition told him that something was off the very same morning he tried, casually, to introduce both boys and suggested that they could go to school together so that Lance wouldn’t be lost on his first day. Maybe Keith could take him on his motorcycle, if Lance dared to ride? Although Keith accepted and suppressed his classic eye roll out of pure courtesy, it didn’t go unnoticed for Takashi that the new neighbor took three more seconds than was acceptable to close his mouth after seeing his son for the first time and that the mention of the motorcycle made his eyes shine. He could feel the irritation of his son for having to take a stranger with him, but even so the boy climbed with suspicious enthusiasm behind him...

From that moment on he had to deal with the fact that he couldn’t stop what he himself had caused. Keith told him that Lance shared most of his classes with him, that he had good physical skills, that he had shown interest in the karate club and he even had asked him about the martial arts gym where he trained in his free time. Gradually, Keith was complaining less about how loud, intrusive, and tiresome Lance was and looking at his phone more than usual, which also didn’t go unnoticed by his father. Although it made him happy to see that his son had made a new friend, he was worried about how distracting could this boy be in such an important year.

And now, to make matters even worse, some of Lance's actions were starting to burst his danger sensors. Like this hedges situation.

Lance tried to look as innocent as he could.

“Me? Looking at Keith? But I see him all day at school... Why would I want to?” he asked with studied indifference. Takashi felt a vein throbbing in his temple.

“That’s what I’d like to know, young man. Would you mind explaining to me what were you doing down there now and why do I see you every morning watching from your balcony towards my son's window? Don’t even try to deny it,” he grunted, pointing an accusing finger, deciding to put an end to the matter once and for all. Lance looked at him, deeply offended.

“Mr. Shirogane, if you say it like that you make me sound like a weirdo.”

“Oh, _really_?” Takashi growled, at the edge of his patience.

“Ok, alright, maybe-- seeing it like that, I may have crossed the line, but believe me, there's a good reason,” Lance said, hugging himself when a chilly breeze blew. “It’s just that, you see, Keith is... a very exceptional guy.”

“I know that already,” Takashi said, unable to suppress the pride in his voice.

“I mean he’s a pain in the ass,” said Lance, and Takashi showed his fangs while Lance hurried to add: “No, no! I don’t mean it the bad way either. Jeez, it’s just-- you don’t know how he’s at school. He is so quiet, almost never smiles, barely let’s one get to know him... of course, some girls think that is _sooo cool..._ ”

Lance made a contemptuous grimace and then sneezed. Sniffling with zero elegance, he continued:

“The thing is, when he’s home with you, he’s another person. At home I hear him laugh, talk a lot. He doesn’t behave the same way outside and, well...” he scratched his head. “I wanted to know how can I make him laugh like that. What can I do to get closer to him and… stuff like that?”

As cheeky as this boy was, Takashi couldn’t help noticing the blush on his still childish face and started to feel pity overshadowing his rage. He sounded convincing-- although the soldier in his brain recommended to perform an immobilizing lock on him and ask for a restraining order, the father at the other end saw before him a simple boy, the same age as his son, drenched and suffering from a severe crush.

Was it really so bad? He sighed.

“Listen, Lance. If you want to find out more about Keith, you just have to ask him and be patient. If he finds out that you're spying on him, he's never going to forgive you. And I'll have to tell your mother and the police,” he said. Lance snorted.

“If you tell my mother that I’ve bothered her neighbors there won’t be anything left of me for the police to take.” He lowered his head. “I'm sorry, Mr. Shirogane. It won’t happen again.”

“I hope so,” Takashi said, but seeing how the boy had started to shiver, he felt guilty. He, an adult man, had attacked a teenager with his hose.

What a cool dad.

Ashamed, he mumbled:

“I'm sorry for drenching you. Go back inside or you'll get sick.”

“Oh, don’t sweat it, it was actually… sooo cool!” Lance said, squeezing his hands and lifting one foot, like a damsel in love. Shiro threatened him again with the hose and Lance ran to his house.

That night Takashi went to bed wondering if he had done the right thing by encouraging Lance to keep gravitating around Keith, instead of taking the opportunity to stop him at once. In truth, experience told him that when things had to happen they would happen anyway and resistance was futile. Would this be the case?

 

* * *

What poor Mr. Shirogane didn’t expect was to confirm his theory as soon as the next day.

That morning, Keith had to leave for school alone because Lance, as his sister informed him, had a fever. Nothing serious, she had said, but he was going to stay at home to recover quickly and not spread the cold. Keith put on his helmet in time to hide a disappointed expression and left for school alone for the first time in several weeks. Takashi saw his son's lonely back disappear in the distance and guilt ate his head all morning. He, an adult man, a father, former soldier of the nation, had made a kid sick in a stupid outburst... How could he expect his son or this boy to think before acting, if he didn’t do it himself?

When Keith returned, he found his dad sitting at the kitchen table, staring intently at a selection of products to combat the cold he had bought, as if asking them for atonement, unable to think of anything better to apologize.

“Err... What’s all this, dad?” Keith asked. He saw his father flinch.

“Oh, hi... This? Well... It's for Lance-- to help him get better,” Takashi explained. Keith frowned, puzzled by his father's concern.

“It's just a cold, isn’t this a bit too much?” The boy said, looking at the juice bottle, cough syrup, cold compresses and other things completely confused.

“Don’t be like that. Why don’t you take this to him? I bet you missed him a lot today,” Takashi said, trying to be casual, but like everything he did, the shot backfired. Instead of answering with an angry "no!" and wrinkling his face as he expected, Keith had blushed intensely. He looked to the right, as he always did when he was hiding something or just embarrassed.

_Well... shit._

It was the last chance to do something about it. It was a situation of ‘speak now or forever hold your peace’. There were so many possibilities, but he simply closed his eyes, sighed and said:

“Go. He’ll be happy to see you.”

Keith seemed to hesitate a few seconds, as if struggling with something, but he nodded and took the things. Takashi saw him leave and thought that all this was happening to him for being such a nosy dad. Lesson learned. He vaguely noticed that he now understood Lance a little. If his strict code of ethics didn’t forbid him to, perhaps he would even climb the McClain’s wall to reach Lance’s balcony and see what was going on there. He’d had to settle with a can of beer, and wait.

And so, he waited.

And waited…

When Keith was back it was dinner time already, but his son returned flushed instead of hungry. When he was asked how Lance was doing, he replied that he was doing fine. And when his dad dared to ask about the things he sent him, Keith stuttered that Lance was very grateful. Takashi didn’t ask any more questions. He just went to sleep later, a bit devastated. Kids grew too fast for his liking.

 

* * *

 The night was cool and Takashi smoked his cigarette while watering the hydrangeas. He threw the butt into the ashtray, tried to gather some patience and, again, spoke to his hedges.

“What do you want now, Lance?”

The boy stood up and shook off the dirt.

“You’re so good. What are you, sir? Secret Agent? Super soldier?”

As Takashi raised the hose again in warning, the boy quickly responded:

“I just wanted to thank you, Mr. Shirogane.”

“It's nothing...” Takashi managed to say, but Lance muttered:

“For the gift and the push.”

It was the confirmation he didn’t need, but he’d have to accept. Although he was _not_ amused about the irony on the fact that everything was his fault, it was impossible to resist the contagious happiness of that seventeen-year-old boy who smiled at him from the other side of the hedges as if he had won the lottery. Well, if things were serious, he had won _his baby_ , which was even better.

“You’ve got balls to come and say thanks, I’ll give you that. But you better behave yourself or else... I won’t hesitate,” said Takashi, pointing the hose at him. Lance laughed raising his hands. Mr. Shirogane added:

“You are forbidden to distract Keith from his duties.”

“Of course.”

“And you're forbidden to do this again in the hedges. And any other weird crap.”

“This was the last time, I swear.”

“And if you ever make my son suffer...” this time, Mr. Shirogane did crackle his knuckles, but Lance just smiled, showing once again his relentless self-confidence.

“Never. I promise.” His smile was wider than ever. “Really, thank you very much, sir. You’re the best!”

Takashi narrowed his eyes at the compliment and gave him his best _'I'll be watching'_ look, but Lance just winked, nodded as a goodbye and went into his house.

When things have to happen, they simply happen and there’s nothing left to do other than hope for the best. He’d have to live with the fact that in the weird turns of fate no one really knows who they work for. Or, in his case, whose garden you actually water.

**Author's Note:**

> Haha. What an experience. I'm actually bad at imagining AUs but, like I said before, I read [this prompt](http://ao3feed-klance.tumblr.com/post/171145293452/anon-asked-if-i-had-writing-talent-i-would-write)  
> in the ao3feed-klance tumblr and found it so amusing I just had to try my hand at it. It's a bit too innocent, I guess, but it's my first AU one shot! Yey!
> 
> Btw, Keith has a motorcycle because Shiro tries too hard to be that Cool Dad™. Do you think he succeeded?
> 
> Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it!! Visit my [Tumblr](http://www.silverineontherun.tumblr.com) if you have any requests.


End file.
